Lighter is always better, for experienced no doubt, but also for beginners.

So if a foil is nervous (jittery) it is not because of lightweight, it is the design that is like that.
Nervous can be the same as "lively and good" for the experienced though, and bad for the beginner, so not that simple.

The deduction one could think beginner foils that are heavy and stable, thus heavy equals stable, is tempting, but IMO plain wrong.

Beginner foils are heavy because they are cheap, and they have to take a lot of abuse so also stronger in terms of "bashing".

And as beginner foils are designed, hmmm - for beginners?, they are more stable, meaning bigger stabilizers and in general.

A lightweight foil is much easier to carry, and also a lot easier to waterstart (especially for these few who want to learn strapless) so much better for a beginner.
But, as you dont turn or anything, when learning, the heavy foil when up riding does not have any drawbacks, agree.

When experienced, for turning and jumping (and pumping), heavy foils suck bigtime - but we all know that.

Light is expensive yes, and if one has never used a lighter foil (same stability design that is) - dont try one, as you will want one

Heavy foils works great, when learning, and also later if you have never tried a light one, as simple as that

I enjoy mine. I use the small wing on a 40" mast and a medium wing on a 25" mast I had them make. LPs are very loose when compared with other foils. I also have a NP surf small. When I switch back, the LP feels like I'm on ice. But again, I enjoy the totally different feeling of each foil setup.

If your really want to experience different setups, you should consider a smaller board.

The yellow and red board is a 115 that I used to use all the time. And I've tried a couple floaty ones that were around 100. For strapless, they were fun with the close stance. They were also much lighter--which I agree is always better for an experienced foiler. But I enjoy a wider stance for riding and jumping. So, for my style, I need to find a thin, light, strong, flexible in the front board around 125-135. For now, I enjoy my 135 DAs.

The DA 145 in the picture is mainly my tandem board. It's just the right size for the two of us.

The Doyle is the first mutant kiteboard. I got it in 2002 to replace my directional Skypirate. I used it to learn how to foil a few years ago. Funny really. It was on the wall for a long time.

After I learned to foil, 4 years ago, I contacted John Doyle thru his website hoping he would build me a custom foilboard. He has a great reputation for building windsurf and kite boards.
I was hoping to have his first foilboard. Anyway, I never heard back from him so I went a different route.

Lighter is always better, for experienced no doubt, but also for beginners.

So if a foil is nervous (jittery) it is not because of lightweight, it is the design that is like that.
Nervous can be the same as "lively and good" for the experienced though, and bad for the beginner, so not that simple.

The deduction one could think beginner foils that are heavy and stable, thus heavy equals stable, is tempting, but IMO plain wrong.

Beginner foils are heavy because they are cheap, and they have to take a lot of abuse so also stronger in terms of "bashing".

And as beginner foils are designed, hmmm - for beginners?, they are more stable, meaning bigger stabilizers and in general.

A lightweight foil is much easier to carry, and also a lot easier to waterstart (especially for these few who want to learn strapless) so much better for a beginner.
But, as you dont turn or anything, when learning, the heavy foil when up riding does not have any drawbacks, agree.

When experienced, for turning and jumping (and pumping), heavy foils suck bigtime - but we all know that.

Light is expensive yes, and if one has never used a lighter foil (same stability design that is) - dont try one, as you will want one

Heavy foils works great, when learning, and also later if you have never tried a light one, as simple as that

PF

OK. This seems like a reasonable analysis. It does also seem that there has been a significant development in the style of foils available in the last year or so. Previously, most foils were "high aspect" or "low aspect". Low aspect wings were mostly entry level foils, like the Liquid Force, which were heavy & had a lot of drag, making them slower & more stable. In the last year low aspect wings have proliferated, including even larger low aspect wings & low aspects wings that are higher quality (carbon). Along with this has been the proliferation of shorter masts, both alloy & carbon.

So ... there are now many more options for foils, light weight & heavier, carbon & non-carbon, high aspect, medium aspect, low aspect & super low (large) aspect. This makes choosing the appropriate foil for your purposes more complicated than it used to be. Also, foils are now significantly less expensive than they were a couple of years ago.